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Free quilt pattern: Christmas Time table runner
Even if your holiday decorations don’t make it out of their storage boxes this year, APQS Dealer Suzan Pons who lives outside of Montpellier, France, has shared an easy and fast pattern that can make your dinner table sparkle with the holiday spirit!
Maybe you’re all about the traditional red and green holiday colors. Or are you into purple, teal, and blue jewel tones? Is your tree adorned in silver and gold? No matter what color palette appeals to you, this pattern can showcase any of them.
Susan’s pattern finishes to a runner that’s 22” x 46”. But the great thing about table runners with borders is that you can widen the borders to fit a bigger oblong or rectangular table or make them narrower for smaller dining sets.
The center holiday flower design is held in place using fusible web, then the pieces are machine appliqued in place with your favorite stitch. Susan chose a blanket stitch to outline her shapes.
The curved stems are made from strips of fabric cut on the bias, then pulled through a bias tape maker. Washable glue holds the bias strips in place on the background fabric while you stitch it to the background fabric. Susan advises doing the inside curves first so that the strips will lay flat on the quilt. That allows the bias edges to stretch around the outer curves and form graceful lines.
Though you can add the small berries with fusible web, Suzan stitched those in place by hand (she also included instructions for hand-appliqueing them to the fabric.)
Once the borders are attached, it’s time for the quilting fun to begin! Suzan used her APQS Lucey to quilt her table runner using a cream colored Aurifil 40 wt. thread for the center background fabric, red thread for the flower petals, and green thread for the leaves and outer border.
A talented designer and artist, Suzan freehand quilted the center portion of the quilt. She had so much fun making the table runner that she did it twice! Check out the background quilting on both below.
She chose to quilt the borders with Quilt Path, the computerized system attached to her machine. She stitched a “pearl on a string” design in the small border, and a poinsettia flower for the outer border.
It is a fun little project – so much so that you might end up making more than one, just like Suzan. Her suggestion? “Put on a little holiday music in the background to get into the mood. The quilting is up to you, but keep the music on, because it gets you singing and dancing in the front of your quilting machine and makes it just a fun time to do your thing!” Happy Holidays!
